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Last updated:
Dec.19.2003.
Language
options: bosnian
/ english
Sept.22.2003.
On Saturday (September 20th), over 30,000 Bosnians gathered as former U.S. President Bill Clinton unveiled a monument to commemorate Srebrenica
genocide. Mr. Clinton, who was US president when the Bosnian war finally ended in 1995, was unveiling a memorial cemetery for more than
8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys who died in Srebrenica.
They were executed by Bosnian Serb forces who overran the town, despite its designation as a United Nations "safe
haven."
Mr.
Clinton watched over the burial of 107 newly DNA-identified victims in a ceremony, in which caskets were lifted over the heads of a throng of victims' relatives and families and passed from person to person.
So far, the bodies of more than
6,000 Srebrenica victims have been recovered and wait for DNA identification of
which at least 1600 have been identified by DNA analysis. This year alone, 882
DNA-identified victims were buried in Srebrenica; 118 in other Bosnian cities.
"We remember this terrible crime because we dare
not forget, because we must pay tribute to the innocent lives, many of them children, snuffed out in what must be called genocidal
madness." Mr. Clinton told thousands of victims' relatives at the
Srebrenica genocide memorial.
Survivors invited Clinton to preside over the official opening of the genocide memorial center honoring the Srebrenica victims because of his crucial role in ending the war.
Widows of those who died wanted Clinton to be the person to open the new memorial site, with one telling the BBC: "He is the only man with the moral authority to do so."
"Among all the world leaders, Clinton has the biggest moral right to open this memorial centre," said Amor Masovic, the head of the Federal Commission for Missing Persons.
Clinton was president when over 8,000 Bosniak boys and men were massacred in the so-called U.N.-protected enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995 after Bosnian Serb forces overran the area.
It was the single biggest atrocity of the war and Europe's worst genocide since World War II.
The $5.8 million memorial-cemetery complex was paid for with donations from by private groups and governments. The United States provided $1 million toward the project.
Local police, NATO-led peacekeepers, European Union Police Mission officers and 300 civilians were proving security for the memorial. Four U.S. Apache helicopters were cruising over the skies over Potocari, a village near Srebrenica where the memorial centre is located.
The ceremony opened with the Bosnian anthem and the raising of the Bosnian flag followed by a choir singing a specially written song that envisions the victims talking to the survivors.
"Mother, I am looking for you. Sister, I love you. I can't find you, where are you," the choir sang. Women in the crowd wept as they heard the sorrowful song.
Clinton criticized those in power who talked of "religious and ethnic
superiority."
"People who quest for power killed those good people simply because of who they
were," he said Saturday.
"They sought power through genocide, but Srebrenica was the beginning of the end to genocide in Europe."
"We remember this terrible crime because we dare not forget, because we must pay tribute to the innocent lives, many of them children who were snuffed out in what must be called genocidal madness," Clinton told the gathering.
Mr. Clinton called for those who carried out the massacre to be
apprehended: "Those most responsible for the atrocities (Radovan Karadzic and
Ratko Mladic), the leaders, have not been apprehended. The search for them must continue until they are," Clinton said. The two men have been charged with genocide by the U.N. war-crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, and are believed to be hiding in Bosnia or Serbia.
"The search for them must continue," Clinton said.
"We owe it to the men and boys buried in this hallowed ground. We owe it to those who survived them. And we owe it to the Bosnians not yet born to see that it is done."
He called on the region to work together and to defy racial and ethnic hatred.
"I hope and prey that Srebrenica will be for all the world a sombre reminder to the world of common humanity."
Sulejman Tihic, the Bosniak member of the Bosnian three-member, multiethnic presidency, said he wanted to thank the U.S government and Clinton.
"Largely because of their decisiveness, the war was stopped and Srebrenica was not repeated in Bosnia," Tihic said.
Srebrenica survivor Advija Ibrahimovic, 22, described the scene for the audience.
"Frightened children, sad women and broken old men stood next to me, and all of us watched the hatred killing human beings. I still remember the moment when they took my father away, and his last glance cast at my interrupted childhood," she said.
Biba Delic, 37, with her two children, wept as the body of her husband Aziz was brought in for burial alongside his two brothers and father.
"Today I am burying my husband and with him I am burying hope. The day we identified him, my hope that I might see him ever again died," she said weeping and hugging her son and daughter. "I wish I could still hope."
In some places several members of one family were to be buried together, including Selim Delic to be laid to rest with his three sons -- Aziz, Azem and Eniz, who were 33, 25 and 20 years old respectively when they were killed.
"It is hard for me to explain how I feel. It is so sad, but it is better to have found them late rather than never," Hazim Delic, 31, the fourth brother who survived the massacre along with his mother, told AFP.
Srebrenica survivor Advija Ibrahimovic, 22, told the audience about her feelings in July 1995.
"I was scared to death. Numerous frightened children, sad women and broken old men stood next to me, and all of us watched the hatred killing human beings. I still remember the moment when they took my father away, and his last glance cast at my interrupted childhood," she said.
Clinton said he hoped Srebrenica would be a reminder for "every child in the world that pride in our own religious or ethnic heritage does not require or permit us to dehumanize or kill those who are different."
He asked the victims to find strength to forgive, but also called for justice for those responsible for the massacre and other war crimes.
Top international and local officials, including British diplomat Paddy
Ashdown who administrates Bosnia; US Ambassador to Bosnia Clifford Bond; Bosnian Presidency member Sulejman Tihic, and Bosnian Serb prime minister Dragan Mikerevic attended, along with dozens of representatives of international organizations and embassies.
Paddy Ashdown and Bill Clinton helped in the dig.
During his stay in Sarajevo, Bill
Clinton also visited former Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic at Sarajevo's main hospital, where he is in critical condition following a fall in his home, a U.S. embassy spokeswoman said.
Izetbegovic, 78, broke four ribs in the fall on Wednesday. "Clinton is the
best face of America" - Izetbegovic told local newspapers.Clinton also took a walk through downton Sarajevo and visited historic
Bas Carsija street. Sarajevo's residents greeted Bill Clinton with joy: "Bill Clinton, you are the best!"
In Srebrenica, the healing is happening only slowly. Srebrenica's pre-war population of 36,000, overhelmingly Bosniaks, has dwindled to 9,000. Most of the town's Bosniaks who survived have not been able to return.
Bosnia is still trying to account for all its dead. Mass graves are still being found and exhumed eight years after the war ended. According to the Red Cross,
more than 200,000 people were killed during the war. Just this week about 500 bodies were pulled from this the latest and largest mass grave discovered so far.
Eva Klonovski, who is helping in the dig, said: "Also it is another thing about this grave because we have had here the remains of women and children and it is the biggest concentration of women and children found in one grave."
Meantime at the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, Slobodan Milosevic, the former leader of Yugoslavia, is charged with a host of war crimes including genocide.
The principal perpetrators accused of the massacre are still at large, including former Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and
Gen. Ratko Mladic.
On August 2, 2001, the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia delivered its first genocide
conviction, for crimes committed in the wake of the 1995 capture of Srebrenica
by the Bosnian Serb Army. Bosnian Serb Gen.
Radislav Krstic was sentenced to 46 years in jail. On December 02. 2003,
Bosnian Serb Captain
Momir Nikolic was sentenced to 27 years in prison for taking part in the
1995 Srebrenica massacre. On December 10. 2003, Bosnian Serb Captain
Dragan Obrenovic was sentenced to 17 years in jail for his role in the 1995
Srebrenica massacre.
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Related:
Address
by former President Bill William Jefferson Clinton at the opening of the
Srebrenica Genocide Memorial
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